Many computer devices provide one or more software applications that permit users of such devices to store information regarding their personal connections to individuals or entities, which may be sometimes called “contacts.” For example, personal information management software applications such as Microsoft® Outlook® commonly enable users to store telephone numbers, addresses, electronic mail (or “E-mail”) addresses, images and other information for each of their contacts in virtual “cards” that may be accessed within a subset of a user interface provided by the software. Additionally, many modern mobile telephones permit users to enter and store similar information regarding their contacts into memory, and such information may be displayed to users in a list, typically arranged in an alphabetical order, when such users search for a telephone number. Web-based E-mail clients and like applications often provide similar features for receiving and storing contact information, as well.
While a contact list enables a user to access large amounts of information regarding his or her connections, a contact list may grow in size and complexity, and become difficult to use, for a number of reasons. First, many contact lists may include large amounts of outdated information, as users frequently neglect to properly manage their lists, such as by updating revised contacts or deleting irrelevant contacts. Second, because contact lists may be merged across devices and accounts, a user may be overwhelmed by the sheer number of contacts at his or her disposal, and may be forced to scroll through information regarding a large number of contacts within such lists in order to identify a contact. Third, most contact lists treat each contact as having equal value to a user, when in reality, a typical user usually communicates with only a small number or portion of his or her contacts on a regular basis.
Although some computer devices and communications applications permit users to maintain lists of contacts that are subsets of full, aggregated lists (e.g., a list of “VIP” contacts), such lists must also be properly filtered in order to ensure that the lists remain of manageable lengths, or that the lists may be easily accessed by such users in order to communicate with their most important contacts.